Karl Urban Says Alex Garland Was the Real Director of ‘Dredd’

After a long career as a novelist and screenwriter, Alex Garland’s first movie as a director was Ex Machina. At least, that’s what it says on his IMDb page. There were rumors back in 2011 that Garland had taken over assembling the film Dredd, which he wrote the screenplay for, and today the film’s star pretty much confirmed them. (The credited director on the movie is Pete Travis.)

A huge part of the success of Dredd is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don’t realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie ... I just hope when people think of Alex Garland’s filmography that Dredd is the first film that he made before Ex Machina. You think about it in those terms; it goes Dredd, Ex Machina, Annihilation.

I liked Dredd when it came out in 2012 (I actually reviewed it for ScreenCrush; you can read my original review here) but I haven’t gone back and rewatched it. Since then, Garland has released Ex Machina and Annihilation and quickly become one of my absolute favorite working directors. So this information makes me very interested to go back and revisit Dredd. Will it feel like a Garland picture the same way Annihilation and Ex Machina do? I don’t know; but next chance I get I’m going to find out.